Business: Warehouse Storage ProjectNature of Work or Scope and Results

The plastics product company was planning a new warehouse addition to their existing facilities. The new building would store and ship 16 feet long, thin, extruded plastic products in a variety of packaging (e.g., carts, cartons, loose). The focus of the project was to maximize storage capacity and picking performance via improved slotting for a large number of stockkeeping units (SKUs). The shipping profile was heavily skewed to a few SKUs representing most of their shipping vol-ume. Material movement was all inclusive from receiving product from manufacturing to shipping.

The design was constrained by a prior decision limiting the available warehouse to a pre-conceived floor area based on prior experience. Extrapolations done by SCG showed the floor area was insufficient for forecasted sales volumes in 5 years. However, contingency actions would occur (e.g., off-site storage of low volume SKUs) when needed.

Several layouts were developed showing the impact of aisle configuration, shipping docks, pick performance alternatives (e.g., end vs. side pick of long items), storage rack capacity configurations, and warehouse equipment. The impact of each of the alternatives was provided in terms of investment and warehouse operation. Estimated manpower requirements for the dif-ferent forecasted years were also provided.

The facility relayouts were successfully completed and are currently in operation.